Saturday, January 25, 2014

Finland: Citizens’ initiative launched calling for separation of church and state

The collection of statements of support for a citizens'
initiative for the separation of church and state in Finland began on
Monday 20 January 2014.

The initiative calls for legislative revisions
to abolish the state church and to establish a state that is unbiased
toward all religious convictions.

"I'm not expecting
the Parliament to rush into revising the laws, but we must be able to
have an objective debate about this," says Petri Karisma, the chair of
the Union of Freethinkers of Finland.

"With the
number of irreligious citizens already breaching the one-million mark,
is the position of the state church still justified?" he asks.

Under
the Finnish legislation, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and
the Orthodox Church of Finland are in a privileged position. Both
churches are defined as public corporations and thus part of the public
administration.

The freethinkers' union argues that
the privileges enjoyed by the state churches violate the rights of
members of other religions and, in particular, people with no religious
affiliations.

"The constitution stipulates that
people should not be discriminated based on their religious convictions.
People also have the right to religion and conscience. Other
legislation fails to comply with these principles," argues Karisma.

Advocates
of the initiative believe religious conviction should be defined as a
private matter.

All religious convictions, they also emphasise, should
be treated equally.

The initiative questions, for
example, the state churches' right to levy taxes, which are collected at
source by the state.

Similarly, it points out that with public holidays
set forth in the Church Act, the Parliament is unable to change them
without the consent of the synod.

In addition, the
advocates argue that pupils at Finnish schools should be allowed to
choose between religious and ethics teaching regardless of their
possible religious convictions.

"If asked, you don't
have to reveal what party you voted for. But at schools, everyone must
reveal their religious convictions, and religious teaching is determined
on that basis," Karisma highlights.

The advocates
similarly deem it peculiar that churches and religious communities are
granted the right to officiate at weddings under the Marriage Act, but
that no such right has been extended to non-religious groups or
unregistered religious communities.

Religious
activities should also be eradicated at schools and kindergartens, as
well as at events of the Parliament, the Defence Forces and
universities, they demand.

As justification, the
initiative refers to the European Court of Human Rights' interpretation
of the freedom of religion, according to which people have the right not
to disclose their religious conviction or lack thereof.

By
2pm on Monday, the initiative had received roughly 350 statements of
support.

A minimum of 50,000 statements are needed for the proposal to
be presented to the Parliament for consideration.